This list includes the official (de jure) world champion football clubs recognized by FIFA. The official competitions that grant this world title are the Intercontinental Cup (1960–2004), the FIFA Club World Cup (2000–present) and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup (2024–present).
As of 2025, the FIFA Club World Cup and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup coexist as current FIFA club world championships, awarding the titles of quadrennial world club champion and annual world club champion, respectively, to the winning clubs.
The current champions are Chelsea, winners of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, and Paris Saint-Germain, winners of the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup.
Competitions
Intercontinental Cup The Intercontinental Cup, also known as the European/South American Cup, was an official international football competition endorsed by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL),- The winners of UEFA Champions League undertake to part in the following competitions: a) The UEFA Super Cup, which is held at the start of each new season. b) Intercontinental competitions arranged by UEFA and other confederations. - Clubs are not authorized to represent UEFA or the UEFA Champions League without UEFA's prior written approval. cfr. contested between representative clubs from these confederations, usually the winners of the European Champions' Cup (now known as the UEFA Champions League), and the South American Copa Libertadores. The competition was played by representative clubs of most developed continents in the football world; has since been replaced by the FIFA Club World Cup. All editions were official UEFA and CONMEBOL competitions, and indirectly also of FIFA.For FIFA statute, official competitions are those for representative teams organized by FIFA or any confederation. Representative teams are usually national teams but also club teams that represent a confederation in interconfederal competitions or a member association in a continental competition cfr. cfr. cfr. In accordance with the regulations integrated in the FIFA Statute, official competitions for club teams can be defined as those organized under the auspices of FIFA, confederations and member associations, or authorized by them, excluding friendly matches and test matches; say the confederal and interconfederal cups (arranged by FIFA or confederations), the championships and the national cups (arranged by member associations). cfr. cfr. cfr. cfr. cfr. cfr. Until 1955 FIFA limited itself to authorizing the creation of international competitions for clubs only if they were organized by at least two member associations. From 1955 he assigned the confederations the exclusive right to organize competitions deemed official. cfr.
From its formation in 1960 to 1979, the competition was contested over a two-legged tie, with a playoff if necessary until 1968, and penalty kicks later. During the 1970s, European participation in the Intercontinental Cup became a running question due to controversial events in the 1969 final, and some European Champions Club' winner teams withdrew.Risolo, Don (2010). Soccer Stories: Anecdotes, Oddities, Lore, and Amazing Feats p.109. U of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 29 February 2012. From 1980 until 2004, the competition was contested over a single match held in Japan and sponsored by multinational automaker Toyota, which offered a secondary trophy, the Toyota Cup.
Throughout the history of football, several competitions were created as attempts to determine the "best club team of the world", such as the Football World Championship, the Small Club World Cup, the 1909/1911 Lipton Trophy, The Expo-Paris Cup 1937,Bologna FC official web-site. List of honours, referring to the Expo Paris 1937 tournament as In pratica un inedito Mondiale per club di grande eco e richiamo ("In practice, an inaugural Club World Cup of great reach"). the 1951 Copa Rio, the International Soccer League, the 1957 Tournoi de Paris and the Intercontinental Cup. Though some of these cups have been mentioned by FIFA sources as Club World Cups or related concepts, or been the object of recognition requests to FIFA, the Intercontinental Cup is the only one recognised by FIFA, with the approval of its Executive Committee/Council, as the precursor to the FIFA Club World Cup. All the Intercontinental Cup winning teams were regarded by worldwide mass media and the football community, FIFA included (as News Center productions and not cataloged on the FIFA website as official entity documents), as "world champions" de facto. On 27 October 2017, the FIFA Council, while not promoting statistical unification between the Intercontinental Cup and the Club World Cup, in respect to the history of the two tournaments (which merged in 2005), has officialised (de jure) the title of the Intercontinental Cup, recognising all the winners as official club world champions,“While it does not promote the statistical unification of tournaments, that is, has not absorbed to the Intercontinental Cup (merged with FIFA Club World Cup in 2005), FIFA is the only organization with worldwide jurisdiction over continental confederations and, then, the only one that can confer a title on that level, ergo the title assigned by FIFA (with Official Documents issued after the Council decision) to the winners of the Intercontinental Cup is legally a FIFA world title." cfr. cfr. with the same title of the FIFA Club World Cup winners, or "FIFA Club World Champions".“While it does not promote the statistical unification of tournaments, that is, has not absorbed to the Intercontinental Cup (merged with FIFA Club World Cup in 2005), the title was conferred from the world federation (with Official Documents issued after the Council decision) so it is legally a FIFA world title" cfr. cfr.
FIFA Club World Cup FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament officially assigns the world title. The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship. It was not held between 2001 and 2004 due to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure. Since 2005, the competition has been held every year, and has been hosted by Brazil, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. The FIFA Club World Cup's prestige is perceived quite differently in different parts of the football world; while it is widely regarded as the most distinguished club-level trophy in South America, it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe compared to the UEFA Champions League and commonly lacks recognition as a high-ranking contest.
The first FIFA Club World Championship took place in Brazil in 2000. but the failure of ISL caused FIFA to discontinue the tournament and cancel the following year competition to be held in Spain. This first failed installment ran parallel with the Intercontinental Cup. FIFA finally managed to buy the prestigious Japanese event and in 2005, after the Intercontinental Cup's last edition, that competition was merged with FIFA and a new trophy replaced the Intercontinental Cup Trophy as well as the Toyota Cup. In 2006, the tournament took its current name.
The format used between 2007 and 2023 involves seven teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about two weeks; the winners of that year's AFC Champions League (Asia), CAF Champions League (Africa), CONCACAF Champions League (North America), Copa Libertadores (South America), OFC Champions League (Oceania) and UEFA Champions League (Europe), along with the host nation's national champions, participate in a straight knock-out tournament. The host nation's national champions dispute a play-off against the Oceania champions, from which the winner joins the champions of Asia, Africa, and North America at the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners go on to face the European and South American champions, who enter the semi-final stage, for a place in the final. In Europe the tournament is almost ignored by the mass media, also because of its sporting level, considered inferior to the Intercontinental Cup, indeed when the sides used to meet in a one-off game in Japan (and even before), this was still a fair fight. The opening up of the global market in football has changed the balance. These days the best South Americans (and the stars from all the other continents) are usually playing in Europe. On 16 December 2022, FIFA announced an expanded tournament that would have 32 teams, quadrennial cadence, and start in June 2025.
FIFA Intercontinental Cup The FIFA Intercontinental Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The first edition took place in 2024. The competition features the club champions of the six confederations of FIFA, and is played as a knockout tournament with the European team receiving a bye to the final. The winners are awarded the annual title of World Champions.
Results by year Intercontinental Cup (1960–2004) +Key to the table Play-off to decide champion Match was won during extra time Match was won via a penalty shoot-out